Back to Hogwarts
by ScarletInkQuill
Summary: Twenty years had passed since the Battle of Hogwarts and now, Taking a last deep breath, George Weasley stepped inside the castle, past the huge front doors...
1. The Room of Requirement

Twenty years... Twenty years had passed since the Battle of Hogwarts and now, in a quiet spring day, birds were flying under a cloudless blue sky and the students were studying outside enjoying the first rays of sunshine of the year, on a completely rebuilt Hogwarts castle. Everything seemed distant and happiness seemed to feel the air on the Hogwarts grounds.

Taking a last deep breath, George Weasley stepped inside the castle, past the huge front doors. Many years had passed since he had last been there and his last memories of the place weren't happy at all. He and many others had been invited to give a talk on the battle anniversary, and George had felt brave enough to accept the invitation. Going back to the castle had awakened too many memories in his head, and part of his bravery had left. Even so, he made himself go forward.

He entered the Great Hall and spotted a known face. Neville Longbottom was making the last arrangements on the decorations of the Great Hall, helping with all sorts of weird plants.

"George!" Neville called noticing him there. "How are you! I haven't seen you in ages!"

George smiled, not that he felt like it and greeted him back.

"I'm moving forward… that's what matters…" George said. "Going back to the shop has helped a lot. What about you? What is like to be a teacher at Hogwarts?" he asked.

"It's good. It's good. Now I see what our Professors suffered with us…" Neville smiled.

George smiled back and said

"Well, I think I'm going to look around. See if many things changed in the castle…"

Neville nodded. "Ok. I'll be here if you need anything. See you in the talk then."

"Yeah, see you." George answered, and he went out of the Great Hall.

He wandered with no final destination for some minutes. When he got to the fifth floor there was something that caught his attention. He approached what seemed to be some sort of memorial, and quickly realized that it was a piece of the swamp he and Fred had installed on that floor so they could upset Umbridge. A small smiled played on his lips.

After sometime George turned around and wandered around again. He followed the steps he and his brother had made so many times… He didn't even notice when he reached the seventh floor. He found himself looking at the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy teaching ballet to trolls. He found it amusing and familiar… seeing that tapestry reminded him of the days in the DA… he didn't remember why though… he paced in front of it from one side to the other and back again trying to remember why this image reminded him of the Dumbledore's Army. He could see the images in his mind just like they were happening right now…

He heard a noise behind him, and slowly turned around. A huge wooden door stood there on the wall, and then he remembered… He had found the Room of Requirement.


	2. Of Old Photographs and Memories

_The Room of Requirement... Of course! How couldn't I remember? _George thought. They had used it for practice new defense spells until Marietta Edgecombe tell Umbridge about their meetings.

George pushed the wooden doors and entered the room. It seemed like if time had stopped inside it… Everything remained the same… the dark detectors and the books on the shelves… the props they had used to practice… everything was there exactly as they had left them.

The noticeboard where they kept the DA members list was there as well. George walked towards it. It was full of newspaper cutouts… News from many years ago… photos, announcements, anything…

And then, one of the photos caught George's attention. It showed a group of people smiling and waving at him. He pulled it out of the noticeboard and looked at it for a few seconds… He remembered seeing Harry put it there… it showed the original Order of the Phoenix. He thought of all the people there that had died while fighting, so that the next generations to come would live in a better place. They fought for what they thought was right… and he thought of Fred... He had died fighting for what was right…

He felt his eyes getting damp and he shook his head trying to dismiss the thought. He looked again at the photograph and, on the left side of it he spotted two men waving, identical, just like he and Fred. He didn't need to ask to know who they were… They were their uncles, brothers of their mother. _Fabian and Gideon Prewett._ George thought. _Twins…_ He stood some time looking at the picture. They had both died in the first war… Fred and George had been named with the same initials as their uncles, but opposed to what had happened to them, Fred and George were no longer together. Suddenly he was thinking how he wished he would've died with Fred that night, twenty years ago... He shook his head again. _That's not what Fred would've wanted, you git! He would wanted you to laugh and move on with the shop! And that's what you're doing!_

George carefully folded the picture and put it on his pocket. He looked around again. There was nothing else there to see.

He turned around and left.


	3. The Room of Hidden Things

George stood outside the Room of Requirement watching the doors close, thinking of a place to go next. Everywhere he thought of seemed to be too painful. He thought about going to the Gryffindor common room but he remembered that this was the end of the year, so there would be students there… students that he didn't even knew… He could find his nephews… but he wasn't really feeling like going to the common room now…

He thought about going to the lake, and he remembered all the days he and Fred used to lay down and watch the Giant Squid… he shook his head – too many memories were coming to his head. What he really needed was a place to go and stay there until the time of the talk. He needed to think and to be alone… He needed to find out what to do and to try and get the right state of mind to give a talk later. He wanted a place where he could relax and where he could get distracted… A room that would make time run faster for him… He really needed a place like that… if only there was some room in the castle that would offer him those conditions.

And then suddenly it hit him… he looked to the now empty wall where the door to the Room of Requirement had just disappeared. _Of course there's a room where I can stay… It's the room of Requirement!_

George thought of exactly the room he needed, and when he was ready he walked past the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy teaching ballet to trolls three times.

He heard a noise coming from the wall and saw the door appearing again, hopefully being the entrance to a room just like the one he had in mind.

George almost ran to the door and slammed it open. The room on the other side was nothing like he had imagined. In fact he thought of why the Room of Requirement had turned to it in first place… Inside of the door piles and piles of old objects, books and other similar items could be seen… just like as if someone had thrown them away to never be found again. He walked inside so he could have a better sight of the room. It seemed to extend itself to infinity… Well, that room would certainly distract him… George thought. He heard the doors close behind him.

George thought to give it a try… after all he had found the Room of Hidden Things.


	4. Of Discoveries and Other Findings

George was now standing inside the Room of Requirement, again. But this time he was surrounded by piles and piles of unwanted objects that Hogwarts students and professors had thrown there never to be found again. _So this was the Room of Hidden Things Harry talked about…_ he thought. He looked around. There were three paths in different directions he could take. Taking a deep breath George chose the one that went straight ahead from the door. _I better not get lost in here… or I'll miss the talk and worry everyone…_

George walked slowly and carefully admiring all the objects that the Room had collected during centuries… old wooden desks, paintings, jewelry, books, notebooks, quills, ink bottles… all sorts of things dusting in piles… He kept walking down the pathway and soon came to a halt near an orange card box with a big W on it. He smiled… he recognized the box as one of their Skiving Snack boxes… _Filtch probably put here the ones Umbridge took… _George thought. He approached the box and opened it. He surely missed those days…

George shook his head to dismiss the thought and closed the box again. He turned his back to it and his heart jumped. In front of him there was a mirror, he knew it was a mirror because he saw his reflection, but he also saw…

"FRED!" George shouted and ran to the mirror. "Fred can you hear me?" He pressed his hands against the mirror. "Can you hear me Fred?" In his reflection he could see himself leaning against the glass, his face white as a sheet of paper, and by his side, Fred, smiling and waving at him. His twin couldn't clearly hear him, so he pulled away from the mirror.

He saw Fred putting a hand on his reflections' shoulder and he thought of what he wouldn't give to be on the other side right now.

George fell to his knees in front of the mirror. With one hand still touching the cold glass, he leaned his head and felt the tears starting to fall… and the he remembered… he remembered the stories Harry had told them many years ago of how he found a mirror where he could see his parents. How Dumbledore had told him to stay away from it, for many had become mad while looking at him.

_Get up George. _He thought. _You can't stay here anymore. Get up._ George forced himself to stand and looked around. There was what seemed to be a long red curtain carefully folded in a table beside the mirror. He grabbed it, and, with a last glance to his twin brother, he tossed the cloth over the mirror.

"Good bye Fred…" he whispered.

Resolved, George walked as far as he could from the mirror, knowing that if he didn't get lost he would succumb to the temptation of remaining there staring at his reflection. He couldn't… that wasn't what Fred would have wanted.

George looked at his watch. It was almost time for the talk. He had to get out of there… but if only he knew where he was…

He tried to retrace his steps from the moment he left the mirror, but he found himself walking in circles…

George looked around. He couldn't get out… he was lost… he has lost himself in the Room of Requirement.


	5. Getting Out

George sat on the cold stone floor of the Room of Requirement. He was tired of walking in circles looking for a way out, and gave up thinking that maybe, if he missed the talk, someone would look for him.

He looked around from where he sat observing the piles of hidden objects he could see - if at least there was a map of this place...

"Psst..." He heard from a pile of things near him. He looked around and couldn't spot the source of the noise. "Pssst..." He heard again. It seemed to come from a pile of old paintings near him. He approached it and started to take out the paintings in their wooden frames.

"Here! Here, young man!" George spotted the painting of an old man sitting on a chair and he took it in his hands. It wasn't very big or heavy so George took it to the place where he had sat down at first.

The old man sat on a dark wooden chair, and was dressed in long dark blue wizard robes. The frame which involved the painting was partially broken as if someone had tossed it out.

George stared at the painting and the old wizard looked directly back at him.

"Did you call me?" George asked. The wizard smiled.

"Yes, young man. You seemed a bit lost to me..."

"I am," George told me. "I can't seem to get out of this place..."

"Yes... I saw you sitting there... So I thought I'd help you."

"Thank you!" George said. "Thank you so much! Can you tell me how to get to the exit?"

"Just follow me..."

George stood up and quickly followed the old wizard from frame to frame until he recognized the big wooden doors that gave access to the seventh floor corridor. He stopped in front of a painting of a group of witches having a meal around a long wood table - a group of witches to whom the old man seemed to have interrupted the conversation by storming into their picture.

"Thank you once again..." George said.

"You are very welcome..." The man said. "I guess you are one of the people who is going to speak about the great Battle twenty years ago." George nodded. "You know... I saw you look at the mirror..." George felt an urge to look at his feet but he kept his eyes on the wizard. "I can't see what you saw on it..." He said. "No one can but you, you know... But by the desperation and sadness that fell upon you I'd say you lost someone you care about very deeply." George nodded trying to stop the tears that threatened to fall from his eyes.

"My brother" he managed to say in a low mutter.

"There is no way of bringing him back, you know..." The man spoke again. "But there are some ways of minimizing the pain left by those who leave this world..." George looked at the painting suddenly interested. The women around the table had stopped eating and chatting to listen to what the old wizard had to say.

"Tell me, young man, do you know what room this is?" The man said.

"It's the Room of Requirement." George said.

"That's right... Do you know how it works?" George nodded. "Then, when you get out, just think of your brother and how much you need him here by your side. Maybe the room will tell you a way of bringing a bit of the happiness that was lost by his departure. You know, this room is weird. No one really knows how it works, but it sure knows a lot about the people who come looking for it. Give it a try and maybe you will have a pleasant surprise..." The old man smiled and George felt suddenly hopeful.

He thanked the wizard for his kindness and got out of the door. Was what the painting had just told him true? Could the room really give him some closure? He looked at his watch. He should go to the talk but he didn't feel like it. For the first time in twenty years George was feeling hopeful and almost cheerful and he wasn't going to waste this opportunity on a talk.

He watched as the wooden doors of the room of Requirement disappeared in front of him and looked at the tapestry. He thought of Fred and how much he needed him right now, and the shop and of the last twenty years alone and walked, trying not to rush his footsteps, three times by the tapestry. He heard a noise and turned around, just in time to see the big wooden doors appear by the third time that day. His heart seemed to be beating furiously inside his throat as he approached the doors and his fingers felt the cold metal of the knob.

He turned, and with a small _thunk_ the door unlocked. He pushed it open and held his breath, waiting expectantly for what was waiting for him on the other side.


End file.
